Building a strong relationship between the manager and each of his/her direct reports is crucial to the overall health of the management system. In fact this relationship is best described to be ‘A strong, two-way, trusting, working relationship, focused on achieving the business goals.’ (from PeopleFit Australasia training manual.) Care should be taken not to disturb this relationship by such activities as allowing other managers to assign tasks, being a “rescuer” when the manager-employee relationship become temporarily strained, or allowing others (like higher management or HR) to provide reviews/recognition/rewards without the direct input of the manager. The manager-employee relationship must be cultivated by the whole organization to ensure a trust inducing culture.
Since the manager should be the primary place for instruction, context setting, feedback, and information for the employee, the manager should know the key concerns of his/her direct reports. A manager should know there are four questions that every employee deserves to have answered. The questions are:
What’s my job?
How am I performing?
What’s my future?
Where are we going?
The first 3 questions should be readily known to each manager and the fourth is obtained by the manager from senior management. Naturally the answers to these questions are provided over time and updated constantly. This implies regular one on one sessions with each direct report. A great people manager keeps these questions in the forefront of building ‘A strong, two-way, trusting, working relationship, focused on achieving the business goals.’
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